Thy Word

David did not say, “Many things have I desired.” He said, “One thing.” His life was filled with enemies, responsibilities, troubles, and needs, but beneath them all was one concentrated desire. He wanted God Himself. He did not chiefly ask for escape, comfort, victory, or an easier life. He desired the Lord.

We often have many desires pulling upon the heart at the same time. We want success, relief, security, recognition, comfort, and answers. Some of those desires may be good, but the heart becomes weak when it is divided among many ruling aims. As the sermon emphasized, “The man of one aim is the man of strength.” Spurgeon expressed the danger plainly: “Divided aims tend to distraction, weakness, disappointment.”

David's one desire did not remove every other duty from his life. It brought every duty under one great purpose. His battles, leadership, family, worship, and future all had to be governed by his desire for the Lord. The one thing did not make the many things disappear; it put them in their proper place.

Ask yourself what truly rules your heart. What do you think about most? What loss frightens you most? What gain seems most necessary to your happiness? Those questions often reveal our ruling desire. The prayer of this passage is not merely, “Lord, give me better desires,” but, “Lord, bring my many competing desires under one great desire.”

David's desire became a decision: “that will I seek after.” It is possible to admire a spiritual life without pursuing one. It is possible to say that God matters while giving Him only whatever time remains after everything else has been done. David refused to leave his desire as a pleasant thought. He committed himself to seek after it.

The sermon made the application simple: “We usually make time for what we truly treasure.” We make time for meals, work, appointments, entertainment, and the people we love. When time with God is continually crowded out, the problem is not only a busy schedule. It reveals that other things have been allowed to become more urgent and more treasured.

Seeking the Lord requires definite choices. Open the Bible when you do not feel particularly spiritual. Pray when your thoughts wander. Assemble with the church when other activities compete for the same time. Turn away from the distraction that continually steals your attention. Desire says, “I want the Lord.” Commitment says, “That will I seek after.”

Hebrews 11:6 says that God “is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” The reward of seeking God is not merely that He gives us things. The reward is that we find Him. Do not wait for a more convenient season. Begin where you are, with the time God has given you today.

David did not want an occasional visit with the Lord. He wanted to dwell with Him “all the days” of his life. A visitor comes for a short time and then leaves. A dweller remains. The sermon stated it memorably: “God is not seeking weekend visitors.” He desires continual fellowship with His people.

It is possible to attend church faithfully and still treat the Lord as someone we visit. We may speak with Him on Sunday, call upon Him during an emergency, and then live the ordinary days with little conscious dependence upon Him. But the Christian life was never meant to be lived in brief religious moments. Christ said, “Abide in me.”

Adults can lose their appetite for God beneath work, family responsibilities, fatigue, and care. Young people may feel close to God at camp, during a special meeting, or in an emotional service, yet struggle to walk with Him on an ordinary Tuesday. But ordinary-day faith is where continual fellowship is proved. The God of the meeting is also the God of the kitchen, the workplace, the classroom, and the quiet hour at home.

Hudson Taylor learned that God did not merely want him working for Him; He wanted him walking with Him. Under tremendous strain, Taylor was known for resting his soul in Christ and quietly repeating, “Jesus, I am resting, resting.” Our strength is not found in visiting Christ for a hurried supply and then leaving. It is found in abiding in Him.

David wanted to dwell in the Lord's house for a purpose: “to behold the beauty of the LORD.” He did not merely want to be in a sacred place. He wanted his attention fixed upon the Lord. He desired a contemplative devotion—a life that looks carefully, lovingly, and continually at who God is.

The beauty of the Lord is the perfection of His whole character. He is beautiful in holiness, mercy, wisdom, truth, power, faithfulness, and love. There is nothing ugly, cruel, deceptive, or impure in Him. Every earthly beauty is only a faint reflection of the One who made it. The more clearly we behold Him, the less impressive the attractions of sin become.

We become shaped by what we continually behold. The world places its images, fears, pleasures, personalities, and ambitions before our eyes all day long. A hurried glance at Christ will not overcome a heart that spends its hours beholding everything else. We must look into the Word of God until we see the God of the Word.

The greatest revelation of God's beauty is Jesus Christ. In Him we see grace and truth, compassion and holiness, humility and glory. At the cross, justice and mercy meet. In the resurrection, power and faithfulness shine. Do not read the Bible merely to finish a chapter. Read until your heart can say, “I have beheld something of the beauty of my Lord.”

Martha was not occupied with wicked things. She was serving. Yet Jesus said that she was “careful and troubled about many things.” Mary sat at His feet and heard His word. The lesson of the sermon was plain: “The one thing must come before the many things.”

The many things of life are always noisy. Meals must be prepared, bills must be paid, children must be cared for, work must be completed, messages must be answered, and ministry must be done. The one thing often speaks more quietly. No alarm sounds when we neglect prayer. No bill arrives when we fail to meditate upon Scripture. Yet the soul grows weak when the one needful thing is continually postponed.

Even work for Christ can take the place of fellowship with Christ. We may prepare lessons, attend services, help people, organize ministries, and still fail to sit at His feet. Service without fellowship eventually becomes irritated, anxious, and resentful. Martha was working in the same house where Jesus was speaking, but her heart had become troubled because the many things had displaced the one thing.

Mary “hath chosen that good part.” Time with Christ must be chosen. It will rarely happen by accident. Choose to stop, open His Word, listen, worship, and receive from Him before the demands of the day scatter your heart.

David said, “One thing have I desired.” Paul said, “This one thing I do.” The desire of the heart must become the direction of the life. Paul was not content merely to admire Christ. He pressed toward the mark. His life had a holy concentration.

Paul had both achievements and failures behind him. He could have lived upon past accomplishments, or he could have remained chained to past sins. Instead, he forgot those things which were behind and reached forth. The one-thing life refuses to be governed by yesterday's pride or yesterday's shame.

A runner cannot press forward while constantly turning around. There may be sins to confess, wrongs to make right, and lessons to remember, but Christ calls us onward. His grace is sufficient for what is behind, and His calling is before us. We seek Him today and take the next obedient step.

Jim Elliot's well-known words fit this concentrated pursuit: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” A life spent upon Christ is never wasted. The world may call such devotion extreme, but eternity will reveal that knowing and following Christ was the only pursuit of lasting value.

Psalm 27 was not written in peaceful circumstances. Enemies surrounded David, war threatened him, and false witnesses rose against him. Yet in the midst of all those pressures, his heart returned to one thing. His confidence did not come from the disappearance of trouble. It came from a heart wholly set upon God.

Fear scatters the heart among a hundred possibilities. It asks what might happen, what might be lost, who might fail us, and how we will manage. David answered fear by fixing his attention upon who the Lord is: “The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?” The Lord Himself was greater than every surrounding danger.

The one-thing life does not promise an easy life. It gives us a steady heart in a difficult life. When God is our light, darkness does not have the final word. When He is our salvation, no enemy can destroy what He has secured. When He is the strength of our life, weakness drives us nearer to Him instead of farther away.

The sermon closes where this week should close—in personal surrender: “Lord, bring my many competing desires under one great desire. Help me to dwell with You, behold Your beauty, and enquire of You.” Then wait on the Lord. Be of good courage. The heart that is fixed upon Him will be strengthened by Him.